Youth basketball game goes viral after parents get violent

A youth league game ended on an ugly note. (Photo: Maki Eni/Getty Images)

A basketball game for 7- and 8-year-olds took a violent turn, ending with a scuffle that saw one team’s coach angrily confronting the referee. A mother filming the incident was then attacked by another women, who tried to knock her phone out of her hand. The mother shook her off and began yelling back.

As local station CBS 42 News reports, footage of the game — which took place in Gardendale, Ala., on Feb. 20 — has since made the social media rounds. Many viewers have expressed shock and dismay over the violence on display, which started when a coach from the losing team, Fultondale, lunged at game officials. Friends pulled him away from the skirmish, but not before a mom from the winning team, Corner, turned her camera on him.

While no children were involved in the brouhaha, locals said the incident set a poor example for the players in attendance.

Others suggested that allegations of cheating and racial tensions may have contributed to the bad blood between the two teams. Just a week prior to the game, a court ruled that the predominantly white Gardendale could not secede from its school system over concerns that it would avoid desegregation.